1908. Revieivs. 17 



usually feed internally, and comparatively smooth pupae, while the latter 

 have flattened larvae that feed openly on their food- plants, and hairy 

 pupj^e. The female PJatyptilids have a single spine to the frenulum, 

 while in female Alucitidae this structure is double. These divisions are 

 probably natural, but it is doubtful if the distinctions are sufficient to 

 warrant their separation as families. Throughout the classification 

 adopted, however, Mr, Tutt is inclined to draw sharp distinctions. In this 

 volume he deals only with the Platyptilidse, and these are split into four 

 sub-families, most of which are again subdivided into tribes, and the 

 eighteen species are distributed among twelve genera. JMeyrick in his 

 Handbook (1895) admits only nine genera in the entire group! 



Space will not permit us to refer to all the species, but every Irish 

 naturalist will look eagerly for Mr. Tutt's remarks on the "Galway 

 plume," which appears in the volume as Fredericina iesseradactyla, having 

 been removed with calodactyla {Zetterstedti), from the comprehensive genus 

 Platyptilia, and placed in one of Mr. Tutt's new genera. The discovery 

 of this insect b}- Messrs. Dillon and Kane in Cos. Clare and Galway is 

 well known to most zoologists in this country. Its restricted distribution 

 in Ireland and its apparent absence from Great Britain are ver}' puzzling, 

 in view of the very wide foreign range which Mr. Tutt records. For the 

 moth occurs in the United States of America, both east and west, in 

 Finland, Russia, Lapland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Belgium, 

 Austria, Switzerland, and North Italy. Probably it belongs to the cir- 

 cumpolar fauna, although ranging far south in Continental Europe. 

 Fairly full accounts of the larva are given from German sources. 

 Platyptilia isodactyla, for which a few Irish localities are given, has a 

 strangely restricted range, being known only from Germany, Holland, 

 Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Isles, and Spain. 



The range of the species in the British Ivsles is not easy to trace, as Mr. 

 Tutt holds to the objectionable arrangement, on which we have before 

 remarked, of giving long, closely-printed lists, with all the counties in 

 various parts of the United Kingdom placed alphabetically. The de- 

 tailed and careful descriptions of the insects and their larvae would be 

 much improved, and mighty indeed, be considerably curtailed, if accom- 

 panied more liberally b}^ structural figures. But the crowded pages are 

 a storehouse of facts and a monument of painstaking industry. 



As usual in the former volumes of his great works, Mr. Tutt gives 

 introductory chapters on some problems of general interest. In this 

 volume Hybridization and Mongrelization among the Lepidoptera are 

 discussed. The facts given are worth the careful study of zoologists in- 

 terested in problems of heredity. There is no constant appearance of 

 Mendelian phenomena among the hybrids or the mongrels, but the 

 results of crossing typical Amphidasys betiilaria and Abraxas grossulariata 

 with their natural varieties — dotibledayaria and Jiavofasciata respectively — 

 refute a recent statement that Mendelian results can only be seen in 

 domesticated mongrels. 



G. H. C. 



